Madam, - Wicklow County Council recently unveiled proposals for a marina development in Greystones comprising 375 houses as well as shops and other commercial development in blocks of up to four storeys high.
An almost identical development proposed by the council in 1997 was rejected at a public meeting attended by 800 local residents. A subsequent survey covering over 1,000 local houses found that 92 per cent of residents opposed the concept of high-rise development at the harbour being used to fund a marina.
In the face of this opposition, the council abandoned its proposals and set up a harbour think-tank which, it claimed, would arrive at a consensus on what scale of development would be acceptable. Community representatives entered this process optimistically. However, their hopes of having a say in the final outcome were quickly dashed. Consultants retained to work with the think-tank seemed determined from the outset to stick with the high-rise option rather than considering more modest developments.
As a result, after three years of futile meetings and an estimated €1 million of taxpayers money, the development now being proposed is almost identical to that rejected by the community six years ago.
This comes from a county council whose objectives include to "promote local community involvement in environmental decision making". - Yours, etc.,
FIACHRA ETCHINGHAM, Mountainview Park, Greystones, Co Wicklow.